Archive for September 16, 2013

Saudi Daily Reports: Hezbollah Successfully Smuggled Chemical Weapons to Lebanon

A leading Saudi newspaper reports that Syria has successfully smuggled some of the regime’s chemical weapons to the Hezbollah.

By Adam Ross

 

President Bashar Al-Assad has smuggled part of his chemical weapons arsenal to Hezbollah in a bid to evade international inspection, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan reported Monday.

Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah – AFP photo

The report quoted Syrian National Coalition member Kamal al-Labwani as claiming that: “The Syrian regime has transferred some of its chemical weapons arsenal to its ally Hezbollah aboard trucks used to transport vegetables.”

The article published Monday, also included a claim that the Assad regime had covertly moved significant parts of its chemical weapons aboard Russian ships docked along the Syrian coastline. Continue Reading »

Israel & PA Renew Agricultural Accords After 13 Year Delay

The agricultural cooperation will help reduce regional tensions, by creating economic committees & workshops for PA farmers etc, that are good for both sides.

By Maayana Miskin

 

Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to renew the agricultural accords that were in place prior to the outbreak of the “Second Intifada” terror war in 2000.

Agricultural officials from both sides met and agreed to establish a regional center for economic and agricultural cooperation.

The initiative aims to improve food quality for the PA population, and to assist both Israel and the PA in fighting crop disease and infestation, both of which can easily cross man-made borders. Continue Reading »

Diplomacy: The Oslo Fiasco

A look at the Oslo Accords that changed the West Bank, and Israel, 20 years later.

 

 
In the last 20 years, the Oslo Accords have turned from a dream into a nightmare for their main architect, Israeli left-wing politician Yossi Beilin.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat

Binyamin Netanyahu, Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat – Photo: REUTER

“Enough is enough, it has to die,” Beilin told The Jerusalem Post on the eve of the anniversary of the famous Sept. 13, 1993 handshake on the White House lawn between then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat and US president Bill Clinton.

Beilin, who at the time was deputy foreign minister in the Labor-led government, stood on the lawn with hundreds of other dignitaries, filled with both hope and fear.

Continue Reading »

Did Israel halt nuclear warhead production with 80 in 2004?

 

According to a ‘Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ report, Israel stopped its nuclear weapon development in 2004, after almost 40 years of its nuclear program.

Jerusalem has never confirmed nor denied possession of any nuclear devises.

By Ynet

 

A review of global nuclear weapons inventories published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists noted that the number of Israel’s nuclear warheads, the manufacturing of which has systematically progressed since 1967, has not grown – remaining at 80 – since 2004.

Alleged Israeli nuclear reactor in Dimona – Photo: Tsafrir Abayov

The review is accompanied by a chart that calculates the nuclear stockpiles of the US, Russia, UK, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea since 1945. Continue Reading »

Muslims, stop blaming Israel for your problems

Did a bomb explode on the other side of the world, or is there a problem with some country’s economy? -No need to look any further than Israel. And where else would the control center for destabilizing the Arab world be? Israel of course!

 

Whenever calamities befall Muslim-majority nations, there is always a country to blame: Israel. Is there a revolution against a tyrant? Zionists are responsible. Who else could be at fault if there is a clash between Sunni and Shia groups? The Jews. Did a bomb explode on the other side of the world, or is there a problem with the economy? Continue Reading »

No serious security-related events on Yom Kippur

As hundreds of thousands flocked to synagogues on the holy day, no extraordinary security-related events to report.

By Gil Ronen

 

No extraordinary security-related events were reported on the high holy day of Yom Kippur, as hundreds of thousands flocked to synagogues throughout Israel.

Magen David Adom teams took 1,973 people to hospitals. A total of 130 people fainted, mostly as a result of the heavy heat and the fact that so many people were fasting on Yom Kippur.

Preparations are now being made for the upcoming Sukkot holiday, and the rabbi of the Kotel (Western Wall) Shmuel Rabinovich estimated that a record-breaking million and a half visitors would arrive at the Kotel by the end of Sukkot. Continue Reading »

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration issues Sukkot advisories

A U.S. agriculture specialist will inspect the ethrog. If either insect stings or pests are found, the ethrog will be prohibited from entering the US. If neither is found, the traveler will be allowed to rewrap & re-box the ethrog for entry.

By JTA

 

WASHINGTON — U.S. authorities released travel guidelines for Sukkot.

“TSA’s screening procedures do not prohibit the carrying of the four plants used during Sukkot – a palm branch, myrtle twigs, willow twigs, and a citron – in airports, through or security checkpoints, or on airplanes,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement, noting the dates of this year’s Sukkot holiday, from Sept.

Continue Reading »

The Yom Kippur War – 40 Years Ago

 

 

 

40 years on, the Yom Kippur War cost 2,522 Israeli fatalities, traumatized a generation & profoundly impacted the Jewish state.

By AMOTZ ASA-EL

 

 

It started at 2 p.m. As if echoing the thunders that once paralyzed their forebears at Mount Sinai’s foothills, 436 Israeli troops scattered in 16 outposts along the Suez waterfront were showered out of the blue with 10,000 shells spewed from 2,000 artillery barrels, while 8,000 Egyptian troops emerged from the water and 240 warplanes descended from the sky.
IDF TROOPS cross the Suez Canal, October 1973.

IDF TROOPS cross the Suez Canal, October 1973. – Photo: Jerusalem Post archives

By day’s end, with nearly half of the soldiers in those outposts dead, vast Egyptian armies parked at Sinai, and 1,400 Syrian tanks on the Golan Heights – one fact hovered above the battlefield’s thick fog: Israel had been stunned.

Continue Reading »

Wounded Syrians recovering in Israeli hospital urge U.S. to strike

 

Some 14 wounded Syrians hospitalized in Nahariya hospital, admit they want a U.S. air strike to oust President Assad.

All totaled, 86 Syrians have been treated in this Western Galilee hospital.

By Hassan Shaalan

Against the backdrop of recent talks of diplomatic solutions to the Syrian crisis, the bloodshed persists, prompting many injured Syrians to cross the border and arrive at Israeli hospitals.

Syrian wounded in Nahariya (Photo: Hassan Shaalan)

Syrian wounded in Nahariya – Photo: Hassan Shaalan

On Thursday, some 14 Syrians were still admitted to various wings in the Western Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya. Some of them told Ynet they were still hoping US President Obama would launch a military strike on Syria and topple Syrian President Bashar Assad. Continue Reading »

Kerry heading to Jerusalem for update with Netanyahu on Syria deal

US Sec. of St. Kerry currently in Geneva for talks with Russian FM Sergei Lavrov over a plan to remove Syria’s chemical weapons & avert U.S. military action.

John Kerry will meet with PM Netanyahu & Abbas on Sunday.

 

 

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Israel on Sunday, and he will update Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on developments in securing a deal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons.

Kerry Lavrov

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Geneva to discuss a plan to disarm Syria’s nuclear arsenal.

Continue Reading »

Pros & Cons of Palestinian Workers in Israel

Was Israel’s decision to give Arabs of the Palestinian  Authority another 5,000 work permits a good idea, or the opportunity for danger?

By Maayana Miskin

 

Arutz Sheva’s weekly newspaper, B’Sheva, asked three Israeli public figures what they think of the government’s decision to grant another 5,000 work permits to Palestinian Authority residents. Israel already employs more than 10% of working PA residents.

Nerya Ofer of the Hebrew Labor Hotline was concerned by the decision. Living alongside non-Jews who are hostile to Judaism can lead to assimilation and loss of Jewish identity on both the individual and national level, he warned.

Continue Reading »

New Version of Israel’s Arrow Missile is Being Developed

Israel Aerospace Industries is developing a newer version of the “Arrow- 3” missile that will be able to intercept ballistic missiles at higher altitudes, far beyond the borders of Israel.

By Elad Benari

 

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is developing a new version of the “Arrow” missile that will be quicker and more accurate than its predecessors, an official said Thursday, according to Kol Yisrael radio.

Arrow 3 – Photo courtesy: IDF

Speaking at a program as part of the annual Researchers’ Night at Tel Aviv University, the director of the Arrow 3 program at the IAI, Inbal Kreis, said that the new missile system will be able to intercept ballistic missiles at high altitudes, far beyond the borders of Israel. Continue Reading »

Egyptian Tanks Cross Border Fence to Gaza

2  Egyptian tanks crossed a fence around the Gaza Strip as the army stepped up its efforts to eliminate Islamic terrorists in the Sinai.

By Adam Ross

 

Two Egyptian army tanks have crossed an initial border fence leading to Gaza for the first time on Thursday, witnesses said.

Egyptian Tank in Sinai – Screenshot

The Hamas administration in Gaza neither confirmed nor denied the incursion, only commenting that no Egyptian tanks had actually entered the Gaza Strip itself.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency that two tanks “crossed the first Egyptian border fence along the corridor between Egypt and (Gaza), and drove along the road running next to the cement wall that Egypt built.”

Continue Reading »

Al-Qaeda Swears to Slaughter Christians After US Finishes in Syria

 

An Al Qaeda faction of the Syrian rebels that’s supported by the Americas, intend to kill the local Christians should they win.

By Raymond Ibrahim

 

While U.S. leaders continue pushing for war against the Syrian government, “Al-Qaeda-linked rebels,” reports AP, “launched an assault on a regime-held Christian mountain village in the densely populated west of Syria and new clashes erupted near the capital, Damascus… In the attack on the village of Maaloula, rebels commandeered a mountaintop hotel and nearby caves and shelled the community below, said a nun, speaking by phone from a convent in the village. She spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.” Continue Reading »

District Court seeks to stop Hamas from influence in Jerusalem

 

Court convicts 3 East Jerusalem residents of affiliation with Hamas & money laundering in attempts to expand terror group’s ideology among city’s Muslim population.

Court says charitable work was clearly meant to spread Hamas terror ideology.

By Edna Adato & Israel Hayom Staff

 

The Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday convicted three residents of east Jerusalem of affiliation with Hamas and laundering money for a terror organization.

Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail - Photo: Tal Cohen

Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail – Photo: Tal Cohen

Yacoub Abu Asab, Kifah Sarhan and Ahmad Alian, all Israeli citizens, were convicted of heading Hamas’ efforts to expand its foothold in Jerusalem by catering to the city’s Muslims in the fields of education, welfare and religious services.

Continue Reading »